Nepal’s Terai Arc Landscape (TAL) Initiative:
Nepal’s Terai Arc Landscape (TAL) initiative earns UN recognition for ecosystem restoration, boosting hopes despite challenges like infrastructure expansion and human-wildlife conflict.
- Terai Arc Landscape (TAL) is a transboundary biodiversity hotspot launched in 2001.
- It aims to conserve critical habitats for tigers, rhinos, elephants, etc., covering ecosystems of the Terai and Churia hills.
- Spanning over 900 km from the Bagmati River (Nepal) to the Yamuna River (India), it extends across 5 million hectares and supports over seven million people.
- The Terai Arc Landscape (TAL) initiative is a pioneering landscape-level ecosystem restoration project in Nepal aimed at creating dispersal space for tigers and reversing ecosystem degradation.
- It was launched in 2004 and has restored 66,800 hectares of forest, significantly boosting the Bengal tiger population in the region.
- The initiative connects different ecologically critical protected areas in Nepal and India, fostering transboundary conservation efforts.
